Euro-Barometer 37.2: Elderly Europeans, April-May 1992 (ICPSR 9958)

This round of Euro-Barometer surveys queried respondents on
standard Euro-Barometer measures such as public awareness of and
attitudes toward the Common Market and the European Community (EC),
and also focused on the elderly and their activities, finances, and
health care. Respondents were asked what sorts of things in life were
of interest to them, whether they were treated with more respect as
they grew older, the extent to which they agreed with several popular
conceptions about being older, and whether they felt as though they
were treated as second-class citizens by public institutions, certain
professions, service providers, or their families. Other questions
queried respondents about the amount of free time they had in their
daily routines, what activities they had pursued during the past week,
how often they saw their families, how much contact they had with
young people and whether they would like to have more, and how often
they felt lonely. Respondents were also asked whether they were
members of voluntary organizations or charity groups and whether they
would join a political party formed to further the interests of the
elderly. Financial questions included whether the respondent preferred
a pension for the elderly to spend as they wished or reduced prices
and concessions for the elderly, how they would describe their current
financial situation, whether their financial situation was secure, and
what made them feel financially secure or insecure. Respondents were
also asked a series of health-related questions, including whether
they had any long-standing illness, disability, or infirmity that
limited their activities in any way, whether anyone gave them regular
help or assistance with personal care or household tasks, who gave
this care, and whom they would turn to should they need extra help or
assistance. Demographic and other background information was gathered
on life satisfaction, number of people residing in the home, size of
locality, home ownership, and region of residence, as well as the
respondent's age, sex, marital status, number of children, education,
employment status, occupation, work sector, age of retirement or
expected age of retirement, religiosity, subjective social class, and
left-right political self-placement.

This round of Euro-Barometer surveys queried respondents on
standard Euro-Barometer measures such as public awareness of and
attitudes toward the Common Market and the European Community (EC),
and also focused on the elderly and their activities, finances, and
health care. Respondents were asked what sorts of things in life were
of interest to them, whether they were treated with more respect as
they grew older, the extent to which they agreed with several popular
conceptions about being older, and whether they felt as though they
were treated as second-class citizens by public institutions, certain
professions, service providers, or their families. Other questions
queried respondents about the amount of free time they had in their
daily routines, what activities they had pursued during the past week,
how often they saw their families, how much contact they had with
young people and whether they would like to have more, and how often
they felt lonely. Respondents were also asked whether they were
members of voluntary organizations or charity groups and whether they
would join a political party formed to further the interests of the
elderly. Financial questions included whether the respondent preferred
a pension for the elderly to spend as they wished or reduced prices
and concessions for the elderly, how they would describe their current
financial situation, whether their financial situation was secure, and
what made them feel financially secure or insecure. Respondents were
also asked a series of health-related questions, including whether
they had any long-standing illness, disability, or infirmity that
limited their activities in any way, whether anyone gave them regular
help or assistance with personal care or household tasks, who gave
this care, and whom they would turn to should they need extra help or
assistance. Demographic and other background information was gathered
on life satisfaction, number of people residing in the home, size of
locality, home ownership, and region of residence, as well as the
respondent's age, sex, marital status, number of children, education,
employment status, occupation, work sector, age of retirement or
expected age of retirement, religiosity, subjective social class, and
left-right political self-placement.

Universe:
Persons aged 60 and over residing in the 12 member nations
of the European Community: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece,
Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the
United Kingdom.

Data Type(s):
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

Data processing for this collection was performed
at the Zentralarchiv fur Empirische Sozialforschung in Cologne,
Germany.

Methodology

Sample:
Multistage national probability samples.

Mode of Data Collection:
face-to-face interview

Data Source:

personal interviews

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release: 1995-03-16

Version History:

2008-06-04 The variable format for weights has been
corrected. The SPSS setup file has been updated. Also, SAS and Stata
setup files, an SPSS system file, a SAS transport (CPORT) file, and a
Stata system file have been added.

2000-09-25 The data have been further processed by
ZA and the SPSS data definition statements have been updated. Also, a
standard machine- readable codebook (PDF) with frequencies and SAS
data definition statements have been added, and the data collection
instrument is now available as a PDF file.